Archive for March, 2006

For the first time in Palestinian history, Jerusalem has a minister: Khaled Abu Arafeh, a businessman from East Jerusalem who worked as a mechanical engineer until he took over the family hardware store just off Salah Eddine street. This is not to say that Palestinians didn’t pay attention to their declared capital before the Islamic Hamas movement decided to create a separate ministry for the affairs of Jerusalem and its Palestinian Arab residents. Before Abu Arafeh, Faisal Husseini had been a de facto minister of the city. Continue Reading »

Having just formed a Palestinian government, Hamas seems to be clutching to the Biblical verses in Ecclesiastes rather than the desires of the “Quartet” (the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations) charged with trying to bridge the Israeli-Palestinian divide. “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven,” fits Hamas’ current agenda because its priorities and timeframe are different from those of the international community, which is pressing it to make immediate political declarations – most importantly, to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Continue Reading »

I paid through my nose this week to get from Ramallah to Amman and the bridge wasn’t crowded like in the summer time.

It all started when I had to make an appointment at 2pm in Ramallah. The meeting went till 2:30 and by the time I took a taxi (for 20 shekes) to the Qalandia checkpoint it was already 2:45. The line was not long but by the time I got out it was already close to 3. I hailed a taxi and haggled him to the normal price of 150 shekels. Continue Reading »

While Palestinians have regularly celebrated the International Women’s Day on March 8, celebrations this year had a different taste. The victory of the conservative Islamic movement Hamas has reinvigorated Palestinian civil society in general and the women’s movement in particular. This year’s pro-women march in Ramallah, which ended with a meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas, was well attended, by nearly a thousand women, interestingly many of them with headscarves. Continue Reading »